§ Camp Clearlake § Book 1: The Covert Con

(( Yep. I like that face!))

"Yeah..." Faw looked at him. "I was 15 when I was bitten. But, I've been alive for 189 years. How old are you?"

"I was 17 when I was bitten, and I'm 108 years old. Blaze was also 17, but she's 107."
"All right, we're here," Alena announced, stopping outside two large double-doors on the left side of the white marble hallway. "Jake, Blaze, and newcomer, please follow me." She pushed open the doors and walked inside.

"Ah. I never realized that you two were only a year apart," Fawn said, as they walked through the double doors.

Jake nodded, going silent as they crossed the threshold. A long table filled with pale, black-cloaked figures faced them. Alena took her spot near the end of the table.
"Blaze, Jake. So nice to see you have completed your mission after ninety years," said a black-haired man who looked to be in his thirties, sitting at the center of the long table. "What held you up?"
"We love Camp Clearlake too much," said Jake.
"I think you love showing your muscles off too much, also," Alena smirked. "Any reason why you're shirtless?"
"Oh -- er..." Jake paused, trying to remember why and when he had taken his shirt off and beating himself up for not putting it back on. "Oh, yeah, I was showing Fawn my runes... trying to show her what being a black mage does to you."
Everyone at the long table turned to look at Fawn. "Oh? You chose this for yourself?" asked a brown-haired woman.

"Er, yeah," Fawn said, a bit awkwardly. "Do many people not choose?"

"Hardly anyone chooses. We haven't seen a willing newcomer in two hundred years," said the woman in reply. Everyone at the table was eyeing her with curiosity.
"Why did you choose this for yourself?" asked the man at the center of the table.

Fawn shifted, a bit uneasily. "Er, well, the first person I met here was Blaze," she explained. "She told me that she and Jake had a secret, and that I had to keep it. They showed me their runes, and explained mages to me. I thought it sounded cool and interesting, and one thing led to another, and here I am,"

Eyebrows shot up all along the table. "Surely they explained to you the gravity of the situation?" asked the man in the center.
"Of course, Igor," replied Blaze. "She was persistant."
"Who bit her?"
"I did," said Jake.
"And she was already a vampire before?"
"Yes."
"Hm, I see." Igor stroked his gotee thoughtfully. "I sense there was another reason for your decision, miss." He looked at Fawn, a piercing stare that would force her to tell the truth, as that was his power.

Words spilled out of Fawn, uncontrollably, "I- I wanted to have friends. Someone to be with forever. I've had a rough past..."

Alena randomly got up from the table and made her way to the door. Everyone ignored her.
"Hm, I see. There's something more, something you've locked deep inside of you... a furious rage of sorts..." he suddenly looked up. "Send Stain in."
Alena was already marching back through the doors with Stain on her heels. Her gift certainly came in handy.
"Yes, Igor?" asked Stain, coming to stand beside Blaze as Alena returned to the table.
"We're trying to figure out why this girl wanted to become a mage."
"Her name is Fawn," Jake interjected.
"Not until she's registered. We don't accept her into our world until she's registered, and we must unravel this mystery first."

Fawn looked over at Stain. As much as she hated to, an image of Stain in a black hood, streaking after her friends, the black spot where her friends had burned.... She knew that Stain would never've done anything like that, and he was unstable at the moment it'd happened, but those three had been her best friends......

Igor fixed his piercing gaze on Fawn. "Anything you'd like to tell us?"

Again, Fawn couldn't control it, but she found herself saying, "S-Stain killed my three best friends when he was unstable. I know he didn't mean it, but the thoughts still haunt me...." She felt horrible for saying it, since she knew Stain's rection....

Stain had covered his ears just in time, but he continued to hyperventilate and become increasingly paler at the thought of it.
"Ah, yes. The incident with the three human girls." Igor's expression softened, showing sympathy for both Stain and Fawn. "I will not speak of it, for fear that Stain will faint or injure himself, as has happened in the past. Lila, give him something to calm him down..."
The brown-haired woman stood, conjuring a wooden bowl and wooden cylinder, along with a few vials of various liquids and some herbs, out of thin air. She sat down on the floor beside where Stain his sunken down against the wall, and began grinding the herbs, mixing them with the liquids, and muttering something under her breath as she moved her hands over the mixture.
"She's making a calming potion," explained Jake in a hushed voice. "Her gift is potion-making."

"Ah, I see," Fawn replied, in the same hushed tone.

The woman, Lila, finished her lavender-colored potion and tipped it into Stain's mouth. After a moment, his tense face eased, his fists unclenched, and his breathing slowed. He opened his eyes. "Thank you. I'm sorry."
"I understand, Stain. It's not a problem at all."

"Wow, she is great at making potions...." Fawn muttered to herself.

"Now..." Igor turned to Fawn. "Fawn, you are about to become a citizen of Blood City and a member of the Black Mage Vampire cult. You must swear to the rules, which have dire and usually fatal consequences if broken. Are you ready to begin your initiation?"

Fawn nodded steadily. "I am ready," she replied.

"Hold out your hands," Igor instructed, getting up from his seat and producing a heavy-looking guilded book out of midair. He walked towards her with the book in hand.

Fawn did as Igor instructed, and held out both her hands. She wondered what was going to happen next...

"This is the rule book. You will read it tonight and return it in the morning. But, because of lack of time, we must swear you in now." He handed her the book, and then instructed her to hold out her right hand.

Fawn held out her right hand, her left clutching the rule book.

Igor made another object appear out of midair. It appeared to be a stamp, such as one would use for a wax seal. He took Fawn's wrist, and pressed the metal stamp to the back of her hand. It burned into her skin, and when he took it away, it was in the shape of a circle with eyes and mouth with fangs, rather like the Vladimir Tod symbol.

Fawn bit her lip as she looked at it. It stung, and she closed her eyes. As the pain ebbed away, she opened them, and looked at Igor.